Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Big Party!


Saturday we celebrated Leah's and Sam's birthdays at GO, a fantastic place in Tupelo.

This was Leah's second time and Sam's first time to have a birthday party ( a party with guests outside our family). Since Leah and Sam share the same friends and their birthdays are two weeks apart, we thought a joint party would be a good idea. And it was! We had such a fun time. Sydney Darnell, the owner of GO provided us with a wonderful party experience.

Leah and Sam sat in chairs and opened their gifts as each guest arrived. The children went straight to the spring floor to complete an obstacle course.


Leah--having a fun time!

It took Sam a while to warm up....he stayed in either my or Olivia's arms for the first part of the party.

Clay--he knows about GO....when he, Olivia, and Julie were younger, they attended weekly classes at GO.

party guests and coaches in action!

After all the guests had arrived and all the gifts were open, the children were divided into four groups. Each group rotated to one of four stations and participated in an activity with a fun coach. They also were pulled from their groups one at a time to help paint a canvas for both Leah and Sam. The activities were rope swinging, marble rolling inside tubes, jumping to catch a football (landing on a pile of pads!), and red light, green light. Since the playing floor of GO is made of that springy stuff, so really anything you do on it is lots of fun!

Jimmy and Sam swinging on the rope!



Leah, swinging on the rope!

The children were also pulled from their groups, two at a time to do the favorite activity of all--

Climbing the Rock Wall!!!

Here is Sam climbing the "little" rock wall. This one does not require any special equipment or harnesses.....the children can just climb up and jump down.


Leah, harnessed and ready to climb the "big" rock wall. We did not get any pictures of her climbing....but she climbed about a quarter of the way up.

Sam tried the big rock wall too! Sydney "helped" him!

Look at how proud Sam is!

Here is Clay climbing the rock wall. He tried 3 or 4 times, and he almost made it to the top!

Julie, smiling and climbing! She almost made it to the top too!

Julie and Olivia, racing to the top! Well, kind of racing! Rock wall climbing is slow and strenuous. Olivia did make it to the top!

Clay and Olivia

Clay and Me!

Yes, I was brave and tried to climb! It was very, very scary! Those rocks are so tiny.....too tiny to grasp with either your toes or hands. I guess I made it about halfway to the top. It seemed extremely high! I was ready to come down, but I was scared to let go! Lynn calculated that I burned about 90 calories attempting to climb that rock wall! My arms were sore the rest of the day!



Lastly, Jimmy climbed the rock wall. It looked effortless!

There he is...at the top!

The final minutes of the party were spent singing Happy Birthday to Leah and Sam and then enjoying a special GO cake (for the honorees) and lime green GO cookies for the guests.





It was a great party!
Happy Birthday Leah and Sam!

6 comments:

  1. Looks like fun! You do remember when I climbed the rock wall at the Slugburger Festival right? Scared to death! Ha!

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  2. Looks like a fun place! How fun that they can share a birthday party!

    I do think I remember Drew from a previous AI season! He was really good if I remember correctly!

    Caylie knew that Charity had tried out, but the contestants can't talk about anything AT ALL (even though everyone around here has been talking about it)! Charity is one of Caylie's facebook friends, and Caylie had heard through the grapevine that if you get into the top 24, then you have to delete your facebook account. A few weeks ago, she deleted her facebook account. :) I don't know if the rumor is true about the top 24 though??? Her mom is one of my facebook friends, and someone asked her (on facebook) why Charity's facebook was deleted, and she never responded. Charity was back at school today (she goes to a Baptist school in town), but I don't know if that means anything or not???
    The lady with the short blonde hair that was with her was one of the girl's theatre directors! (She was also sitting and "getting her hair done" in the salon!) Caylie is sooo excited about it all!

    I'm glad that you all liked her...hopefully lots of other people will too! :)

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  3. Go looks like a fun place!

    Thanks for your sweet comments. We are doing core 6 this year. I don't regret it, although it has been a stretch for my kids. The ones doing it are 10 and 8. We've loved it, but some of the books are a little over their heads. Sometimes I read aloud to them the books they are supposed to read and vice versa. I've made some adjustments here and there. Next year we'll do 3/4 which will be a little more like it. My 6 yr old will be 7 next year and she'll do core 3/4 with us. I knew we couldn't go to DC this year so wanted to save American History for next year when we can travel a little. Some of the core 6 books have been perfect for them and I just have to stay on top of them with questions to make sure they know what's going on with the tougher books. I have to admit I've enjoyed almost every book we've read.

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  4. I have never heard of GO and am now so excited! We have been looking for a place to have my daughters birthday :)

    From reading the previous comment I am now curious about your curriculum. What do you use? I am currently researching curriculum and am feeling a little overwhelmed!

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  5. What a great place! My son would love to have a party there. Great pictures. Looks like you all had a fun time! Happy Birthday to both your children!

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  6. Kristi (Mitchell) Sullivan gave me your blog address. Love your blog and would love to chat sometime about blogging!! It is quickly becoming a hobby...and what great blogs there are out there with info, fun, and entertainment! I am a MS girl who lives in AR:) You have done a great job on your blog and I'll check back in with ya. Blessings!
    Amanda

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